Fears of aggressive and unregulated Internet censorship have today been fuelled after it emerged that BT's Mobile Broadband service (based off Vodafone's network) had begun blocking the controversial PirateBay (BitTorrent tracker) file-sharing (P2P) link site.

The move follows last week’s conviction of four PirateBay founders in a Swedish court, who were found guilty of assisting in making copyright content available (original news). PC Pro reports that customers of BT's Mobile Broadband service who attempt to access the PirateBay site are informed that the sites content has been blocked as part of a new UK voluntary code:

Warning Notice: "This uses a barring and filtering mechanism to restrict access to all WAP and Internet sites that are considered to have 'over 18' status," the warning states. It goes on to list a series of categories that are blocked, including adult/sexually explicit content, criminal skills and hacking.

It's not known precisely which element of the PirateBay BT has taken exception to, although it does host many links to legal adult videos, not to mention a lot of generally legal content too (it’s not all piracy). This could be for the purpose of protecting minors, although restricting access to the whole site seems an awful lot like the IWF’s earlier Wikipedia gaffe (original news).

It's worth pointing out that some Mobile Broadband operators, such as Vodafone, do already block adult content from their services. They often also restrict access to certain services (VoIP, MSN etc.) due to the threat they pose to their own existing revenue streams (voice calls etc.). Interestingly BT advises that its block can be removed, although customers need to contact their customer services department to make such a request.

UPDATE @ 6:39pm :

It appears as if BT's block warning notice has caused quite a bit of confusion. The IWF is currently informing those whom enquire about the situation that they cannot answer why a blocked splash page for Pirate Bay would reference the IWF. The IWF has also reiterated that its block list only covers URLs displaying indecent images of children.

Meanwhile a new update to PC Pro's article includes a small statement from BT, which appears to indicate that BT alone chose to take a tougher line against PirateBay and other networks could do as they please:

BT Said: "The list of sites and content that is restricted is compiled by individual operators themselves. The warning that BT provides links to the IWF website is for information on the Code only. BT customers who wish to have access to particular sites reactivated can do so by calling 150."

Much as we stated before, mobile operators have long imposed a block on adult websites and this can be removed. However BT will surely face many questions over why it has chosen to block PirateBay in its entirety, especially when such links can just as easily be found through Google.

UPDATE 22nd April @ 09:13am :

It came in too late yesterday to post but here's the IWF's official statement. Nothing new over the last update but interesting none the less:

“The IWF list contains only publicly available web based content and only URLs related to indecent images of children. We have no role regarding peer-to-peer traffic and have never taken any action regarding Pirate Bay as it is outside our remit.

The UK code of practice for the self-regulation of new forms of content on mobiles is available on our website for informational purposes, however, it is not overseen by the IWF nor do we have any role in its implementation. I’m afraid we do not know why our organisation has been referenced in relation to any action regarding Pirate Bay. Anyone with queries regarding this issue should contact their service provider.”

UPDATE 22nd April @ 1:04pm :

References to the IWF removed from original article to help clarify their status.

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